The Pros And Cons Of Democracy In Cyberspace

The internet was a promising technological advancement designed to make the world’s information more accessible and the public’s participation in government more feasible. However, according to John Dvorak in his column titled “The False Promises of the Internet,” the stability and freedom of the internet is on a downward trend. He conveys this idea with the use of his negative connotation and his appeal to ethos.

The internet has become a popular source used by society of a worldwide computer network that provides a variety of information and communication facilities allowing individuals to communicate with one another easily. The internet it self has brought people together but has changed the way people interact with each other, created isolation, some addiction and being unsafe. Nowadays, anything can be shared to the wide world through any device that is able to connect to the internet; where this can lead to what Charles Seife terms as “no privacy” in his article, “The Loneliness of the Interconnected.” According to Seife, the Internet’s vast interconnectivity made it possible for everyone to hear everyone else - and to be heard by everyone else.

Democracy is known as a system of government when all eligible people of a state can voice their own opinions as well as elect representatives. Democracy is not once mentioned in The Declaration of Independence. Pros of a democracy are, its by the people and for the people. Democracy is meant for everybody to be eligible to vote and they are able to vote. The people are also able to participate in what they think, feel , and voice about the political, social, and economic issues that are presented to them. It's in the people's best interest not just the governments. The goal is to find solutions with decision-makers best interest. The main goal is to is find solutions that are best for the people and regulate conflicts between states and government.  A democracy imposes equality, the people's votes carry the same weight, which makes all individuals to be heard and make them feel as if their opinion is important. Other than in elections of the state a citizens

Online technologies are beneficial to the modern world. It can improve a person’s education, business, and helps in everyday life hassles. It has become an essential part of the way that people live and it is very likely that people would be a loss without it. In “Ethics and the New Genetics,” the Dalai Lama claims that to ethically use new technological advancements we need to develop a “moral compass”. Peter Singer, in “Visible Man: Ethics in a World without Secrets,” discusses whether new technology and “openness” makes our lives better, or if the lack of privacy takes away the rights of individuals. Both authors discuss how technology is advancing very rapidly and can significantly have major pros and cons to society. The two authors, however, have different viewpoints in which how the society can determine when technology has become ethical. Dalai Lama is firm believer that technology is evolving so fast that ethics could hardly keep up with it. He addresses how people should have ethical standards when dealing with the internet. Thus, he is directly proving to us how he would want society to ethically determine when and how technology should be used. Yet, on another spectrum, Peter Singer argues that although ethically, internet is invading our privacy, this invasion of privacy is the only way that the public is safe and people should brutally discover the truth about everything but somehow it can cause harm. Peter Singer and Dalai Lama both agree how the new online

There are few places on this Earth, if any, where the possibilities are truly endless. However, if you detach yourself from the physical world and emerge into the “online” world, you find that this just might actually be accurate in this realm. The World Wide Web has had so much to offer to us since the early 1990s, but with this comes controversy. Unleashed onto a plane of seemingly immeasurable freedom of anonymity, was the world ready for such responsibility? Since those early days when new emerging technology changed our lives immensely, have we at all become a better place, or have we bitten off more than we can chew, and doomed our human relations forever? Exploring these concepts are three in-depth articles, including: “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle, “The Loneliness of the Interconnected” by Charles Seife, and “Cybersexism” by Laurie Penny. Although it is thought that the Internet brings the world together, it actually does not help us politically, culturally, and economically like one would believe, as it makes us unable to be independent, isolates us from different points of view, and encourages real-world violence against women and other minority groups.

America’s democracy is an important part of our history and what has made this country what it is today. There are many pros and cons in relation to how our country is run when it concerns the U.S. Constitution. Something that is important is that America is how the framers came up with the idea of what democracy is to help this nation to succeed and to help provide a good model to be followed throughout the world. There are different parts of our government which has powers yet they must consult with the other powers before following through and executing their proposals. Another factor that has played an important role in the development of our American democracy is where there is a big separation of government and religion. Our American democracy has our U.S. Constitution which relies on the three branches of government where the political parties have candidates which are voted into office. This paper will discuss how federalism is incorporated into our Constitution and what the purpose is in having three branches of government, the reason behind having the political parties and how this is incorporated into our American Democracy.

Taylor discusses in chapter 4; Unequal Uptake, her take on the inequalities and realities of web 2.0, and that while the web is a great tool to be used and it does provide connectedness, we have yet to achieve true cultural democracy. With this, she takes into account of what the media boosters think about the accessibility of the internet and how it empowers those who take the time to use it. They would argue that now with the internet we are all hyper-connected and this makes us hyper-empowered, and should we thrive in using this new system become hyper-democratic. However, it is a problem to say the internet has inequalities because it is very ambiguous in terms of the web and the amount of inequalities and factors playing are quite expansive. One of the clearer issues that Taylor points out is the monetary division among internet users, where the rich can afford what is described as the super highway of web, high speed, and the secondary class of internet, wireless, is left to the financially challenged. In the participation of the rich and large monopoly companies like Amazon, Google, and so forth is what creates the difficulty for niche cultures and late bloomers to flourish using the web. But this lack of openness is not the only problem as when the web evolves it is becoming harder to maintain diversity because it is turning into a much more personalized entity, meaning the exposure to difference may be decreasing as our ‘filter bubbles’ become more apparent. She illustrates that the big difference in the real world as opposed to the virtual is that we are focused on the wrong things, things that please us, that may make us famous, etc. but we should be finding new ways to confront opportunity in order for the digital democracy to come to

The author compares the difference from the past and the present and how the internet has changed not only himself, but others and the way that they are able to understand and focus due to the long-term use of the web. While comparing the past and the present the author gathers information from well know writers that feel the same way about the effects of the web. The author's choice of personal experiences, vivid imagery and analysis backed by research hook the reader and persuades them to believe that today's technology is causing mainly problems.

It’s a bright Sunday morning; the birds are chirping, the smell of fresh coffee is in the air and you turn on the tv; “Another Leak Of All Verizon Users Personal Information Out On The Web” is today's headline on the news. In our society right now; the government has the utmost power; yet they might not be using their powers in ways you’d expect. If you're a daily electronic users at Urbandale High School who spends at least 30 hours a week using online functions for entertainment or work; then you might not have heard or seen what the government's been doing recently. In an in depth analysis shows that our life we’re living right now could be seen as a dystopian universe over 50 years ago. Yet as our nation advances, its being advanced in

One detrimental consequence of the technological society we live in is the development of new power struggles that reveal themselves in the digital divide. In the dawning of the technological age that has brought us into a globalized

In the end, while Lyon and Hafner give us an entertaining story regarding how the Internet was discovered, we are still left wondering about what effect the Internet is actually having. True, we see all of the hard work that occurred behind the scenes in the making of the Internet in this book, but now the question must be asked: where does the Internet take us? This is a very important question in the context of where technology takes our culture, and takes humanity in general. Indeed, every piece of technology has an effect on the people within the culture. There is, after all, certain political and social consequences to the progress in technology. In his essay "Do

Chapters five and six explain the separation of the informational, social and technological systems of the state. Modern society is changing due to the increasingly dependent social and information systems. These chapters examine the legal issues that arise in the informational state, spanning from intellectual property rights to the ideas of the information commons. Braman believes that, “both communal and individual identity are constructed via flows of communication, introduction of any new information or communication technology influences the ways in which we relate to each other and form into groups” (p. 165).

Around the world, the issue of human rights is widely debated. Why people very interested issue of human rights? With the popularity of the broadband, the development of science and technology, the use of the network become a very common life. People can skillfully use the internet and like to comment in the network. So the issue of “whether or not internet user should use real name speech in the network.”, many countries has become the focus of controversy. Russia, Vietnam, Ecuador, and Pakistanis are trying to stop Internet users from either posting anonymously or using encryption to communicate securely. For Simon’s article, I believe that “the United States have a clear advantage over surveillance technology”, I agree that governments violate international law, but I disagree that Simon’s article all talk about mass surveillance is a bad policy for citizens.

Theorists contend that representative government is headed for direct democracy by way of the Internet. Essentially what will happen is that representatives will no longer be needed because citizens will be able to use the Internet to make decisions. Grossman contends that “the more power [citizens] have to control their government and to involve themselves in making its decisions, the better” (41). Over the years citizens have been obtaining information through the media, newspapers, and other forms of mass media. The issues that arise with obtaining information through these sources are that the government can easily censor them. With the Internet comes “vastly expanded capacities for data collection, for computation, and for automation” (Kamark & Nye 22).

Throughout this essay I will be discussing how the digital age has transformed society in many ways. The digital age also known as the information age, is the evolution of technology in daily life and social organizations have led to the fact that the modernization of information and communication processes has become the driving force of social evolution.” This is a time period in which we live in now where Internet and email are available; this is an example of the digital age. The Information Age is the idea that access to and the control of information is the defining characteristic of this current era in human civilization.